Tuesday, November 08, 2016

QUANTIC BRAIN

A
theoretical analysis of the results of behavioral experiments performed in rats
(Sechzer JA, Lieberman KW, Alexander GJ, Weidman D and Stokes PE. BiolPsychiatry, 1986; 21 (13): 1258-66), by Matthew Fisher, a theoretical physicist
of the University of California, USA, has begun to generate controversy and
capture the attention of international scientific
community. If subsequent experiments, to be performed by Fisher and
collaborators achieve similar results to those of Sechzer JA, then Fisher could
be the next winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine for opening a new branch of medicine,
inductive in turn of a second wave of biological psychiatry. A saga that seems
to have been reactivated in 1986, when Fisher devastated by the effects of a major
depression that he suffered decided to follow the track to his own illness.
What better then to investigate the mechanisms and behavioral effects of a
simple antidepressant: Lithium. Fisher would spend a long time analyzing in depth the effects of 2 isotopes of
lithium, chemical entities only different in the number of their nuclear
neutrons. The experiment performed by Sechzer JA et al. consisted of administering salts of 2 stable, non-radioactive isotopes of lithium:
Li-6 and Li-7 to 3-month-old rats: before, during gestation and during
lactation. Li-6- puerperal rats were more affectionate, more cared for, and
more frequently breastfed her offspring, while Li-6 and control mothers ignored
their offspring and nursed them infrequently. For Fisher these behavioral
differences lie in the nuclear spin
of each isotope of Lithium, a quantum property that affects the time an atom
can remain in entanglement quantum
state, isolated from its environment. The smaller the spin of an atom, the lower the interaction of the nucleus with the
electric and magnetic fields, having a quantum decoherence
(passage from a quantum entanglement state
to a classical physical state), slower. By having the Li-6 and Li-7
different numbers of neutrons have different spins. Therefore, Li-7 exhibits too fast decoherence, for quantum
cognition purposes, while Li-6 remains entangled
longer, thereby having different behavioral effects.

Hypothesis
that suggests a role for quantum mechanisms in the cognitive process. Fisher believes that
the storage of brain quantum information is mediated by phosphorus atoms, which
have a half-spin -a low number- that would make possible long
periods of coherence, capable of
being further prolonged, if bound to calcium. Fisher thinks Posner molecules
(Ca + P) could play the role of a natural brain qbit. After long reflections Fisher (Annals of Physics), thinks
that the quantum cellular process begins with a pyrophosphate (2 phosphates
released from an ATP). The interaction between the spins of these 2 phosphates causes them to become entangled and can be paired in 4 forms:
3 configurations (triplet/weakly entangled state), which are added to the
total spin of one, and a fourth possibility: singlet (maximum entanglement)
, capable of producing a zero spin,
crucial for quantum computation. Enzymes break entangled phosphates in 2 free phosphate
ions, which remain entangled even when separated (fast process in singlet state), being able to combine
with calcium ions and oxygen becoming Posner molecules. Neither calcium nor O atoms
have nuclear spin to preserve the one-halftotal:
crucial spin to maintain long periods
of coherence, thus protecting the entangled pairs of external
interference, maintaining its consistency
for hours, days, weeks, distributed in long brain distances, influencing the
liberation of neurotransmitters and activating neuronal synapses.